Himalayan Active Fault Zones: Basic Understanding, Review and Concerns
摘要
The location of the active fault is the most vulnerable to earthquakes. Integrated approaches to assessing fault activity in the Himalayan region are geologic, geomorphic, geodetic, and seismological data analysis. The most significant active continental megathrust fault (The Main Himalayan Thrust) is beneath the Himalayan range. Deformation of continental crust occurred in three different formats (Himalayan Frontal Thrust, Main boundary thrust, and Main Central thrust). Himalayan frontal thrust is a geologic fault that defines the boundary between the Indian and Eurasian plates. Three significant seismic gaps in the Himalayan region are the Assam gap, the Central gap, and the Kashmir gap. The Himalayan state of Uttarakhand lies in the Central Gap. It has the maximum potential to experience magnitude earthquakes very shortly, as per geological, geomorphological, and GPS data analysis. Significant stress accumulated in this area due to the subduction of the Indian plate into the Eurasian plate can be released anytime through an earthquake. Himalayan earthquakes can make about 1 million people from various large mountain cities. Previous major earthquakes with rupture area Mw 7.5 (1803, 1835, 1905, etc.) occurred along the shallowest portion of the megathrust boundary and the subduction earthquake zone. Due to the push of the Indian plate at the edge of the Eurasian plate, a mega-earthquake occurred in the Nepal basin of Central Himalaya. Vulnerability mapping has been done through high-end GPS data in this region to save human lives and property. The present study is focused on typically assessing the active fault zone in the Himalayan region and its vulnerability to contemporary and future concerns with the help of an intensive literature survey, cloud-based analysis of satellite data, and web-sourced GPS locations. The study’s outcome revealed the region’s possible location of high-magnitude future earthquakes. The result of the study helps to find high-risk areas for earthquakes by evaluating stress zones due to subduction plate movement. It has a significant chance to estimate the time and potential intensity of seismic events in the Himalayan landscape. This study makes it easy to identify vulnerable inhabitant regions in the Himalayas with a high chance of earthquakes due to fault movement.